Vertigo Treatment
Find Stability, Confidence, and Relief
Dizziness, vertigo, and balance problems can be frightening and disruptive—affecting your mobility, independence, and quality of life. At The Hearing & Dizziness Clinic, we specialize in diagnosing and treating vestibular disorders using advanced equipment and evidence-based techniques.
We help you understand what’s causing your symptoms and create a personalized treatment plan that gets you back to feeling steady and secure.
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What Is Vertigo?
Loss of balance
Nausea or vomiting
Lightheadedness
Unsteady walking
Sensitivity to motion
Ear pressure or tinnitus
How Can We Help?
Ruling out a vestibular disorder requires a series of complex and specialized tests. The vestibular test battery takes 2-3 hours with our Doctor of Audiology to complete. Below is a summary of the tests we perform, however, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at any time.
The first piece of the puzzle of a vestibular disorder is a very thorough vestibular case history and questionnaires which allow our Doctors of Audiology to gain valuable information about your symptoms. These documents help us to gain insight to your concerns and the ways that they affect you and your quality of life.
Secondly, we perform a hearing test. This test not only reveals the status of your hearing and may provide insight to your vestibular concerns.
Next we perform the Dix-Hallpike and Sensory Organizational Testing to check for involuntary eye movements due to specific changes in positioning. This test helps us determine if your vertigo is central or peripheral (i.e. in the brain or inner ear) and if peripheral, which ear is involved.
The next piece of the puzzle is a VNG, a Videonystagmography test. This test is used to determine whether your vestibular symptoms are caused by your inner ear. A VNG records, analyzes and reports your involuntary eye movements through the use of video goggles worn while you look or lie in different positions. There are four parts to this test: Saccade test – evaluates eye movements, Tracking test – evaluates your eye movements as you follow a moving target, Positional test – measures dizziness as associated with moving your head, Caloric test – measures the responses to warm and cold air in your ear canal.
The tests are then interpreted by our audiologist and explained to you. She will provide you with her recommendations, if any. She is more than happy to collaborate with your Physician and a detailed report can be sent to your Family Physician for your records.
What is Vestibular Rehabilitation Therapy?
Why is VRT Needed?
Disease or injury can damage the vestibular organs resulting in the brain not being able to obtain accurate information about balance and motion, which can relate to symptoms of dizziness, imbalance, vertigo, double vision, and other symptoms. For many people their brain can adapt (a process called vestibular compensation) and they are able to recover from these symptoms on their own. Sometimes the vestibular compensation process is not successful. The big red flag for somebody that needs some vestibular therapy is someone that is falling, or experiencing spinning or dizziness or feels like there are objects that are moving that aren’t really moving around them.
What Happens During VRT
Our qualified Occupational Therapist (OT) will perform a thorough evaluation by observing and measuring posture, balance and gait, and compensatory strategies. The assessment also includes head/eye coordination tests (with or without head movement). The OT will also use other assessment tools such as lifestyle and symptom questionnaires.
Using the evaluation results, the therapist will develop an individualized treatment plan that includes specific head, body, and eye exercises to be performed both in the therapy setting and at home. These exercises are designed to retrain the brain to recognize and process signals from the vestibular system and coordinate them with information from vision and proprioception.